Thousands of people living with HIV, cancer patient groups & public health activists organised a protest rally in Delhi calling on the Indian government to reject the European Union (EU)'s demands in the EU - India Free Trade Agreement (EU - India FTA) negotiations.

The protests coincided with Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's visit to Germany to meet German Chancellor, Dr Angela Merkel with the FTA at the top of the agenda. On April 14-15, the union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma will be in Brussels for ministerial level negotiations to finalise the FTA.

As both sides push for the early conclusion of the FTA, the latest leaks of the negotiating text show that the EU's demands for harmful intellectual property and investment provisions have not stopped. The provisions require India to go beyond its WTO commitments and will have an adverse impact on access to medicines across the developing world, the health groups said.

“The Supreme Court has kept Section 3(d) alive & intact in a case that has captured global attention and sparked off global debates on the need for developing countries to protect only genuine innovations in medicines & not evergreening. Having failed to get their way at the Supreme Court in the Novartis case, we can expect the EU to push its industry's demands for changes in the Indian law to curb the Indian judiciary,” said YK Sapru of Cancer Patients Aid Association.

Indeed, intellectual property enforcement measures that go beyond the WTO's TRIPS Agreement feature prominently in the leaked text and have been adopted from the Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement (ACTA) that was roundly rejected by the European Parliament. The EU is demanding that its companies have the power to demand the freezing of bank accounts and seizure of properties of generic companies on the mere allegation of patent infringement and to drag third parties like treatment providers into litigation. These wide ranging provisions aim to curtail the independence and discretionary powers of Indian Courts that have so far balance patent rights with public interest in court cases, the health groups said.

“The inclusion of these enforcement provisions will undermine the Indian judicial system and deprive people of access to justice. Such provisions which impede fundamental rights such as the right to health and access to medicines threaten to subvert the fundamental tenets of the Constitution of India,” said Anand Grover, senior counsel and director of Lawyers Collective.

“The legal and financial muscle of big pharma is already on display in India as they hire the country's top lawyers and sue the Indian government and patients groups in patent cases around the country. With the Indian Courts holding the Constitution paramount this is a despicable attempt by the Europeans to bypass the Indian Constitution and Indian Courts and move the litigation into secret tribunals overseas on the pretext of investment protection,” said Loon Gangte of Delhi Network of Positive People.